'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 5

Diaz Family Vacation

Marco’s parents have so far proven to be a likable couple given their generous and hospitable nature, and for that, it’s nice that they have major roles in this episode where Star, wanting to give them a gift for their anniversary, decides to take them on a trip to her home dimension of Mewni.  The catch to this is that in taking the Diaz family to another dimension, Star has to use the dimensional scissors she got from “Party with a Pony” which is forbidden because her parents require her to stay on Earth, so that gives this little vacation some tension.  Because this vacation is forbidden, Star keeps everyone in the village district of Mewni where the poor live to keep from being noticed by her parents.  Despite the less than ideal spots for the vacation, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz are very appreciative of what they see which only adds to their appeal.  At the same time, Marco feels noticeably inferior to Star since all he offered his parents for their anniversary are fanny packs which don’t please them nearly as much.  It’s a shame that this point isn’t really resolved because as they travel, the safety gear packed in the fanny packs prove to be useful in helping Marco survive.  This steers us towards why the vacation leads the group into the Forest of Certain Death.  It’s all because despite Star’s best efforts to duck out of the way of her parents, her father, King River, just happens to be travelling in the particular area of Mewni and even hunting in the Forest of Certain Death, even though he had earlier claimed to be holding a lecture.  They just can’t escape him.  If that’s not enough, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz are just completely blown over by everything in the forest which still shows the appreciative and enjoyable sides of their characters, but this also means they’re unaware of the extreme dangers.  It reaches its breaking point when Star and Marco come to the conclusion that they were eaten by a multi-headed dragon.  There’s an awesome fight against the dragon with cool spells from Star, and Marco using more fanny pack supplies, but it’s ultimately broken up by River who cuts the dragon open revealing that Marco’s parents were never eaten.  We also get a great moment of bonding between Star and her dad when he reveals that he just wants to have a little fun and adventure to get away from the stress of royal life, just like his daughter.  It’s a nice reveal that shows there’s more to Star’s dad than just a strict authority figure as is how it strengthens Star’s bond with him by showing that he’s not as boring as she thinks.  Ultimately, this episode really packs in a lot of greatness with likable characters, genuine suspense, and surprising developments. 9.5/10

Brittney’s Party

As this episode opens with Star being loved by the entire school, it’s pretty easy to see why this is the case.  Not only can she perform great spells with her wand and win in several awesome monster fights, but she’s also friendly to everyone she meets.  Then we have another popular girl at the school, Brittney Wong who by contrast gets her popularity for all the wrong reasons.  She’s rich and is among the best looking of the girls at school, but she’s also highly judgmental, looking down at others for petty reasons which really makes all popular and rich people look bad, and that’s a trope that I really can’t stand.  Anyway, because of her popular status, her birthday party is looked at as the biggest social event of the year, and anyone she doesn’t give an invitation to is crushed.  Now Star, literal-minded as she’s established to be, gets her invite with the help of her wand when Brittney says that she’ll invite her when pigs fly; you can probably guess where this is going.  The party itself is what makes up the entire episode where the ever-friendly and innocent Star steps in to liven up the party with her wand complete with bounce house bus seats, a hot tub, and a light show which make it easy to identify with the guests who love it.  The party feels like one you wish you could attend.  In addition, we’re treated to a large dose of Brittney complaining about things not going her way and acting like she’s the only person who matters.  Those moments are significantly less pleasing.  There’s also a subplot of Marco dealing with motion sickness since the party takes place on a bus.  It presents a major challenge for him to not embarrass himself and the longer he stays on the bus, the easier it is to feel for him, even if the strains he’s feeling can be hard to watch at times.  The climax of the party when Ludo and his army show up to attack and drive the bus into another dimension ties into what these characters go through, even if it doesn’t always make them likable.  Star’s fight with the monsters comes with creative takedowns for each of them and makes everyone love the party even more.  Brittney has her ultimate unlikable moment by saying she wants Ludo to destroy Star.  Marco, whose motion sickness is at its peak, successfully fights through it all and takes control of the bus to make it avoid the interdimensional portal and give the party a literal smashing finish.  Basically, this fight is the ultimate finale to the party even with Brittney’s constant ingratitude and bratty attitude.  Because of this, this episode is truly one party you’ll never forget. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Diaz Family Vacation
2. School Spirit
3. Party with a Pony
4. Quest Buy
5. Monster Arm
6. Cheer up Star
7. Star Comes to Earth
8. Brittney’s Party
9. Matchmaker
10. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Star gets "Mewberty" for the first time, and takes Marco and his friends to "Pixtopia."

If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 3

Monster Arm

It’s interesting how a safe kid like Marco has proven to be useful in the fights we’ve seen so far not to mention turn out to be so skilled in karate.  Because of this, it’s great that we get an episode dedicated to these talents of his.  He’s shown to be competing for a karate competition against Jeremy Birnbaum who, in an amusing turn of events, turns out to be a bratty little boy.  Star’s magic is worked into the issue when Marco breaks his arm while practicing.  Using a spell book that came with her wand, which was never used before this which brings some unfortunate implications to Star’s personality, Star finds a spell to heal Marco’s arm, but it instead turns the arm into a monster tentacle.  Although this further shows Star’s tendencies to get reckless with spells as shown with a collection of scenes of Marco’s life being inconvenienced by the monster arm, it’s cool to see how Marco actually grows to benefit from what’s happened.  He not only beats a school bully with it and obtains more popularity than ever, but he also becomes stronger than ever for his karate competition.  As for Star, she also shows off a lot of admirable qualities when she takes it upon herself to fix Marco’s arm, literally staying up for hours to get the spell right before jumping in to use it.  She also points out that while Marco is benefitting from the arm, it could be a bad influence on him, especially when it talks to him and convinces him to take out all humans.  While Marco doesn’t get this at first, when the arm tries to actually destroy Jeremy Birnbaum, he finally sees sense just as the arm starts destroying the karate stadium.  Everything’s resolved with another battle with a creative magic display from Star where she turns a lot of random things into arms, and they prove helpful in getting her to finally defeat the monster arm, and turn Marco’s arm back to normal.  Ultimately, it makes the story kind of just come and go aside from a slight hint that this isn’t the last of the monster arm, but we are still left with a well-told story for Marco and Star making a significant step towards getting a better control of her wand.  So, there are some significant benefits here. 9/10

The Other Exchange Student

While Star’s friendly and loyal side has made her a likable character to get behind, with this episode, we learn of an unfortunate catch to this part of her character.  She’s so loyal to the Diaz family letting her stay with them while she’s on Earth, that she becomes possessive of them and their hospitality.  What’s more, as the beginning of this episode shows, she takes the Diaz’s treatment of her way too well which is a problem due to how excessive the treatment is involving them literally throwing a party for her every day.  It’s like Star thinks she’s the most important being in the world which is not a very likable trait to get behind.  This really comes to a head when an exchange student called Gustav from Scandinavia arrives.  He almost instantly wins over his hosts with his hospitality, thoughtful gifts, and especially his meatballs.  While Gustav seems like a really nice guy, Star completely dreads his presence the moment he arrives all because he’s getting a lot of attention from a family who don’t get to see him all that often.  It not only makes her come off as jealous, but also highly inconsiderate.  What’s more, it isn’t long before she starts making wild accusations about Gustav without any proof all for the purpose of making him leave so she can have her precious Diaz family to herself even if it would cost them the genuine happiness they’re getting from the visitor.  Granted, there are some suspicions that are justified such as her getting that Gustav’s faking his Scandinavian background after going through his bag, and catching some strange actions from him in the dead of night.  Still, her irrationality comes clear when she comes to the ridiculous conclusion that Gustav wants to cook the Diazs into meatballs making her still open to put a damper on their fun when Gustav invites them for a meatball picnic in the woods.  It does lead to a nice revelation to flesh out Gustav’s character.  Star really was right that he had something to hide.  He’s from a small unpopular town who wants to start his own meatball business to stand out, and Gustav isn’t even his name.  Everything else Star suspected about him is proven false as everything he did the previous night was related to the making meatballs…though we never get an answer of why he measured Marco’s parents.  This is welcome depth to Gustav’s character as opposed to him just being a happy visitor, but Star STILL is inconsiderate by being happy that he's leaving in exchange for her keeping his identity secret and even goes back to enjoying the unnecessary parties for her.  She really isn’t at her most likable here, but she’s still enjoyable for how funny and over-the-top she is, even when she’s acting jealous.  That good humor, Star being right in some instances and Gustav proving to be a likable guest character save this episode from mediocrity even if the issues are hard to ignore. 7/10

The Ranking

1. School Spirit
2. Party with a Pony
3. Monster Arm
4. Star Comes to Earth
5. Matchmaker
6. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where see more heart to Star and Marco's friendship in "Cheer Up Star" and when they go on a shopping spree and find Ludo at "Quest Buy".

If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.